Zhou Yan's footsteps immediately halted as the voice filled his ears. As he turned to look, he saw an elderly man walking out from the crowd, a calm expression on his aged face.
The elderly man was clothed in red and looked around a hundred years old, but he also carried along an extraordinary vicissitude. His real age was definitely above two thousand years. He definitely could be considered an old man!
Because of his high cultivation and exuberant life force which slows down his aging, others only felt that he was around a hundred years old.
"Steward Yun He!" Upon sighting him, the surrounding subordinates greeted with respect.
"Oh, looks like it's Steward Yun" Zhou Yan smiled at the elderly man clothed in red.
"Young Lord Zhou Yan, since you are all members of the Imperial Family, do you really need to use Qi during a duel?" Steward Yun replied, frowning as he stared at the siblings.
"We were just playing. Since Steward Yun has spoken, we are naturally all good now." Zhou Yan casually muttered.
At this instance, Luo Cheng also withdrew his fists as he politely greeted Steward Yun.
Steward Yun was a long serving subordinate of Prince Zhou Leng, he was in charge of managing the affairs of the Leng Mansion in the absence of Prince Leng.
He also possessed a profound Cultivation, In fact, it was rumoured that he had already advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm a year ago, and right now no one knew just how far he had grown since then.
Steward Yun's reputation could be considered quite remarkable, even among the older generations in Leng Prefecture. Hence, in the Leng Mansion, he held quite a high status because of Prince Leng's trust in him, and even Zhou Yan did not dare to
offend him.
"What is the point of fighting against your own brothers from the same family? If you are really capable, when the Bloodforge Trials begins, you ought to compete with the younger generations of the Leng Prefecture. Only if you win, then can you be considered as skilled." Steward Yun retorted.
"Steward Yun is right." Zhou Yan lazily replied.
He approached Luo Cheng with the Jade box in hand and threw it's content which was a Peak Level 2 Pill towards the latter. Promptly using a soft tone that could only be heard between two, he lightly muttered, "A word of advice for you, go out less from now on. Otherwise who knows what might happen."
As he finished, he patted Luo Cheng's shoulder as though nothing happened, before he turned around with a smile on his face and left with Zhou Feng.
As Luo Cheng stared at Zhou Yan's back, he slowly tightened his fists into balls as a murderous intent flashed across his eyes. He tagged him as one who would live a short life!
"What i hate the most is being threatened, you'll be the first fool i kill in this world!"
Even though presently Zhou Yan's cultivation was superior to his, Luo Cheng remained confident that with the help of the Primordial Fiendgod Technique and his mysterious Bloodline, killing him would be a piece of cake.
Steward Yun watched Zhou Yan and his brother leave before walking over to Luo Cheng, a smile on his face, "Young Lord Luo Cheng, are you alright?"
"Yes, thank you Steward Yun" Luo Cheng nodded in acknowledgement.
Steward Yun was one of the few people in the Leng Mansion who had always been good to the previous Luo cheng since young. Hence, their relationship was considered pretty good and it was only because Steward Yun has been busy with cultivating these past few months that their interactions had decreased compared to before.
"I just witnessed your duel with Zhou Yan, I'm guessing you've reached the 3rd Star of True Qi Realm?" Steward Yun asked, surprised.
He knew that Luo Cheng's cultivation had previously been at the 5th Star of Qi Warrior Realm half a year ago, yet he had already reached the 3rd Star of True Qi Realm. Truly an astonishing pace.
"It's just a fluke." It was not easy to hide the fact that he had reached 3rd Star of True Qi Realm. After all it's effects were showcased at the outermost layer of one's body. Hence, Luo Cheng did not bother to conceal it, nodding his head in response to Steward Yun's question.
"Even as you don't possess the Golden Dragon Bloodline of the Imperial Family, you are quite talented, it's just that you're a late bloomer." Steward Yun smiled, his expression turning serious, " However the current you is still way behind Zhou Yan.
According to my knowledge, he had already progressed to the 5th Star of Houtian Realm three months ago, and was recently given a rare divine herb by his mother, Princess Consort Tang Ying, which upgraded his Golden Dragon Bloodline to the Emperor Level. Hence, it is best for you to avoid fighting with him or you will surely lose out."
"Yes, I know." Luo Cheng did not try to put on a brave front. Based on his current abilities, he knew that he was still outclassed by Zhou Yan. Nonetheless, he remained confident that he will definitely surpass the latter!
"Hehe, alright, keep up the good work, I will be heading back now. Remember to work hard in your cultivation so you can participate in the upcoming Bloodforge Trials, you know how much Prince Leng cares about that event." Steward Yun smiled as he patted Luo Cheng's head. Then, after he nodded his head towards Zhou Youran and Zhou Qing, he swung his sleeves and walked away suavely.
"Hehe, Steward Yun is really cool, even Zhou Yan had to back down in front of him." Zhou Qing said with a smile, as she watched Steward Yun's figure walking away.
Luo Cheng rolled his eyes at Zhou Qing. Without further ado, he passed the Level 2 Alchemy Pill to Zhou Youran and immediately said his thanks for her efforts previously and turned to leave the Martial Arts Hall.
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In the following days, Luo Cheng began refining the Qi Nurturing Pill and Qi Returning Pill. He would refine alchemy pills until he exhausted all of his Qi and became too mentally exhausted before resting.
On the first day of refining, he had a ridiculously poor success rate, out of ten refinements, he would only succeed in three. After he became more familiar with the process, his success rate began to gradually increase.
However, regardless of how hard he tried, this success rate never came close to his refinement rate for the Blood Qi Pill. Luo Cheng knew that this had something to do with his abilities as an alchemist. When his abilities were insufficient, it was normal for him to have a high failure rate for pills with higher difficulty. He could not rush it and could only slowly accumulate experience to
raise his ability as an alchemist.
After a week, Luo Cheng had completely used up all of the medicinal ingredients he had purchased from the Herbal Market. He managed to refine eighty Qi Nurturing Pills and a hundred Qi Returning Pills in this time frame.
Evidently, he had experienced higher returns with the Qi Returning Pill. In this week of non-stop refining, he grew more adept at controlling the White True Fire. As a bonus, his cultivation of the Primordial Fiendgod Technique had almost reached the peak of First Heaven.
What gave Luo Cheng the most joy was that the green sphere in his sea of consciousness could now penetrate into the Alchemy Cauldron and allow him to see clearly the state of the Alchemy Pills in the cauldron. It was a pity that he could not control this phenomenon. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it did not. If it could be controlled, then his success rate pertaining to pill refining would increase dramatically.
At this moment, there were only about four more months before the Bloodforge Trials begins. The urgency in Luo Cheng's heart increased as the days went by. It was about time for him to enter Bloodstone forest for more bitter training.
Early in the morning, Luo Cheng placed the bottles of Qi Returning Pills and Qi Nurturing Pills into his spatial ring and made some other simple preparations before he prepared to leave.
Stepping out of the doors, the morning sunlight shone down on Luo Cheng's face. The light felt really warm, filling him with fighting spirit.
The next time he came back, not only would his Primordial Fiendgod Technique be in the Second Heaven, his own cultivation realm would be at the Xantian Realm or above. Luo Cheng made a solemn oath in his heart.